Harvard Reaches 500 With Win Over Penn

The Harvard women’s basketball program reached its 500th win with a hard fought 72-63 victory at Penn on Friday. The game, which was marked by back-and-forth play, saw three Crimson players post double figures. Despite dominance from the charity stripe and precision outside shooting, the persistent Quakers (3-14, 0-3 Ivy) would not back down and stayed with Harvard (10-7, 2-1 Ivy) until the last minutes.

“I’ll take it, coming out of exams because Penn is a better team than their record,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “You get a false sense from their record, but they are a very physical team.”

Co-captain Emily Tay led the offensive attack with a 22-point performance. Sophomore Christine Matera wasn’t far behind, celebrating her 20th birthday with a career-high 17 points. Matera put the icing on the cake with a 5-for-5 effort from three-point land. Freshman Brogan Berry posted 19 points, while senior co-captain Niki Finelli led the Crimson with 7 rebounds.

“I thought we played really well as a team,” Tay said. “We had different sparks from so many different players.”

The game reached a climactic finish in the last five minutes, with crucial shots from Matera. With the score tied at 47, she hit a long range three pointer that was punctuated by a tip-in from sophomore Emma Markley, putting the Crimson up 52-47. Penn responded by scoring six of the next eight points to make it 54-53. Markley quashed the Quaker’s hopes of a game winning rally by tallying eight straight to extend Harvard’s lead to 62-53 with five minutes left in the game.

“I thought we had really crucial plays that helped us break away in the end,” Tay said. “Markley sparked some momentum in the last minutes of the second half which we were able to finish with.”

Tay hit two from the free-throw line to further the lead to 64-53. Penn responded by draining a pair of three pointers to pull within six, but perfection from the charity stripe carried Harvard to the win. In the final minute, the Crimson shot 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.

In the first half, The Quakers opened up play with two consecutive shots to take a 4-0 lead. Harvard responded with a jumper from Tay to get on the board. The Quakers extended their lead with four straight points, bringing the score to 8-2. Tay tallied two more baskets and Berry hit a shot from behind the arc to put Harvard within one. The Crimson earned its first lead of the game off of a pair of Claire Wheeler free throws, making it 11-10. A layup from Berry and a three-pointer from Matera brought Harvard from 17-16 to a 22-16 advantage.

“We just remained calm,” Delaney-Smith said. “Teams are always going to have runs; it’s how you react that dictates the outcome of the game.”

Penn went on an 8-4 run over the next three minutes to pull within 26-24. The Crimson responded by finishing the half with a 6-0 run to take a 34-26 lead going into the second stanza. After the first half, both teams were evenly matched on the stat sheet, but the Crimson outshot the Quakers 50 to 20 percent from beyond the arc and 78-40 percent from the free throw line.

“We weathered their scoring runs well,” Delaney-Smith said. “Christine hit some big shots, so did Brogran, Tay and Markley, while everyone stepped up on defense.”

The Crimson carried its precision shooting into the second half and finished the game with a 46.9-percent rate from the field, 71.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 84 percent from the charity stripe. Penn shot 42.1 percent from the field and 37 percent from three point land.

“A win like this definitely helps us get our game legs back,”

Delaney-Smith said. “It’s always the case with the schedule we have.”

—Staff writer Evan Kendall can be reached at kendall@fas.harvard.edu.